[HPforGrownups] Re: "Some won't like it". The Scar Connection Implications.

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 130184

I'm sorry that this is rather late . . . I actually wrote it on Friday, 
but I didn't have internet access over the weekend, so . . .

Steve:
>> The question isn't whether or not Harry knows that Voldemort is a
>> badass, because nobody knows it better than Harry.

Betsy HP:
> Does he?  I thought that was part of the problem throughout OotP.
> Harry *never* fully grasps just how bad Voldemort is.  He thinks he
> can take him.  He thinks he's taken him before.  Except Harry has
> never really taken Voldemort.  He's been damned lucky, and it's
> unfortunately led Harry to become far too cocky.

You're right that Harry's been damn lucky.  In fact, he says as much in 
the American Edition  of Ootp, pg. 327:

***
"Listen to me!" said Harry, almost angrily, because ROn and Hermione 
were both smirking now.  "Just listen to me, alright? It sounds great 
when you say it like that, but that stuff was luck -- I didn't know 
what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did 
whatever I could thank of, and I nearly always had help --"
***

This is in response to Hermione's suggestion that he form the DA, after 
both she and Ron start listing off all the things Harry has done.  A 
little bit later he goes on (pg, 328):

***
"[. . .] and you two sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to 
be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up -- 
you just don't get it, that could just as easily have been me, it would 
have been if Voldemort hadn't needed me --"
***

I really don't see why so many people try to argue that Harry is 
getting too cocky with regard to LV, or that he doesn't take him 
seriously.  Harry *knows* the man is deadly, he *knows* he's only 
survived by luck so far.  The fact that, despite this knowledge, Harry 
is still willing to fight, still willing to defy the Dark Lord, is what 
makes him special -- what makes him a *hero*, at least in my book.

> IMO of course.
> <g>  (Though to give Harry the benefit of the doubt, I think his
> belief that he's successfully taken Voldemort is one of the few
> things helping him sleep at night.)

But he's *not* sleeping at night, is he?  He's plagued (especially in 
the summer, before the corridor dreams take center stage) by horrible 
nightmares about the graveyard resurrection and Cedric's death.  
Honestly, I don't think anyone takes LV more seriously than Harry.

Laura